Theme

The Arts

Featured Items

Detail of a printed book shows a colored illustrated dragons on a circular diagram with text in Latin.

Astronomicum cæsareum

Peter Apian
1540
Detail of a hand colored manuscript map shows flags and place names along a coastal region.

[Early representation of Newfoundland, Lower California, the Amazon, and the Ladrones]

António Pereira
circa 1546
Detail of a hand colored lithograph shows enslaved Black people planting sugar cane in an open field.

[Post-emancipation Life]

Ladies' Society for Promoting the Early Education of Negro Children
1833-1837
Detail of a printed book shows a portrait frontispiece of Phillis Wheatley sitting at a table with a quill in her hand in the process of writing.

Poems on various subjects, religious and moral

Phillis Wheatley
1773
Detail of a printed text shows a large, leafy tree. Labels printed below.

Museum Museorum

Michael Bernhard Valentini
1704
Detail of a hand colored manuscript map shows villages labeled in Spanish such as "Pueblo de S. Pablo" and "Pueblo de Huitziltzinco." Churches, trees, and bodies of water are also included in the map.

El presente mapa demuestra la cituacion, plano, y repartimiento, que en la actualidad tienen los arroyos, que bajan de Sierra Nevada…

Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros
1770
Detail of a colored manuscript map shows the Black Sea with labels. Decorative border includes red, blue, and green ink and gilded details.

Battista Agnese atlas

Battista Agnese
1543-1545
Detail of a printed book shows worn papers and header text reading "An Anagram. Anna Bradestreate" and other text in English.

The tenth muse lately sprung up in America

Anne Bradstreet
1650

See Also

18th Century

History of the Book